Oct 18, 2018 (China Knowledge) - Data released by the World Payments Report 2018 showed that in terms of the total number of online payments in the statistical period, the U.S. topped the list with 148.5 billion, with Eurozone coming in second with 74.5 billion and China third with 48 billion online payments.

The report also showed that China's non-cash transactions accounted for the world's second-largest share of the growth. In addition, the report predicts that China's digital payment power, led by Alipay and WeChat, cannot be ignored. By 2021, China's total online payments will surpass the U.S. as the world's largest.

The study is based on data from the world bank, the bank for international settlements and the European central bank's statistical database. Non-cash transactions include checks, debit cards, credit card payments, credit transfers and direct debit transactions. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for all digital transactions will be about 13% between 2018 and 2021, rising to USD 876 billion from USD 598 billion in 2018.

China completed 48 billion non-cash transactions in 2016, up 25.8% YoY. China's rate of growth was second only to that of Russia, whose share of non-cash payments rose 36.5% YoY to 17.3 billion. Australia was third with 11.1% growth, at 10.6 billion.